COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP ENHANCE SOCIAL STUDIES EDUCATION IN MN
Living in a history-rich community with active historical societies provides many benefits
for students in the Marple Newtown School District. Fourth Grade students participate in two
half-day programs that are a result of school-community partnerships. In April, the Newtown
Square Historical Society and a group of home-school parents and children host 4th graders
from each of our elementary schools for half a day in history at the Papermill House in
Newtown Square. Students visit the ruins of the old mill and learn about archaeology and have
the opportunity to cut wood, wash clothes, weave cloth, write with a quill pen—all the oldfashioned way. Home school students and their parents dress in period costumes and perform
a variety of skits that demonstrate what life was like for the families and children who lived in
the Papermill House. Students also visit the museum, and work with an interactive map to
observe the changes that have taken place over time in Newtown Township.
A second partnership is with Dunwoody and a team of retired Marple Newtown
teachers. Each 4th grade class spends half a day at the Octagonal School House on West
Chester Pike, again returning to the past to learn about what it was like to go to school in the
mid-19th century. The retired teachers return to the classroom, in costume, to teach
“cyphering”, writing, history, and science. At recess, students learn to play the games that
children in 1850 played.
The Marple Historical Society brings together a group of history buffs, many of whom
are former teachers, to provide a hands-on history experience for Marple Newtown fifth grade
students. Students spend half a day at the Massey House learning about the house itself and
activities that went on in the house—cooking in the kitchen with an open hearth and bee hive
oven, and processing flax and wool to spin thread, weave and make clothing. Outside, students
learn about the kitchen garden and the blacksmith shop, make candles, and play colonial
games.
Community partnerships also support our students in their economics education. In
second grade, students learn from SAP volunteers, trained by the Junior Achievement (JA)
program, through the JA in a Day program. The Social Studies “Our Community” curriculum is
reinforced as students study community business, how money flows through the community,
and experience making “donuts” in a simulation of a local business.
Economic education continues through a partnership with the Franklin Mint Federal
Credit Union (FMFCU). All Marple Newtown third grade students have an in-class lesson using
the Berenstain Bears’ Trouble with Money book followed by a field trip to FMFCU’s new “Bear
Country Credit Union.” At Paxon Hollow Middle School, 8th grade students learn about
“Economic Decision-Making” and “Earning Income” from guest teachers from FMFCU. The
program continues with our 12th Grade Political and Economic Issues students who benefit from
lessons in “Identity Theft,” and “Establishing and Maintaining Good Credit,” again taught by
guest teachers from FMFCU. Students in our Financial Literacy elective have the opportunity to
apply to be student interns at the Marple Newtown High School branch office of the Franklin
Mint Federal Credit Union scheduled to open in the MNHS library in the fall of 2014.
Ms. Sandra Schaal